Both the Harris and Trump campaigns are showing confidence as Election Day approaches. • Minnesota Reformer

With Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump still in a tight race according to public opinion polls, both campaigns exuded confidence on Thursday.

With the election just five days away, the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates are making their final pitches to voters and zeroing in on swing states — with neither showing a measurable advantage in the polls.

A senior Harris campaign official said on a call with reporters Thursday that they “feel really good about what we’re seeing.” And the Trump campaign sent reporters a memo showing Trump ahead in five of seven swing states, based on polling averages from Real Clear Politics.

The Trump memo, written by pollster Tony Fabrizio, showed Trump with narrow leads in Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Nevada and larger advantages in Arizona and Georgia.

More than 63.6 million early votes were recorded Thursday evening, according to the report the early voting tracker from the University of Florida Election Lab. In states that have party registration data, Democrats continued to lead with more than 12 million registered voters with that party, compared to more than 11.2 million Republicans and more than 7.8 million registered with another party or no party.

Senior Harris campaign officials also suggested that Trump is “clearly concerned” about losing the race, noting that he is “raising baseless claims of election fraud and irregularities.”

They referred to A Truth Social Post from the former president on Wednesday in which Trump claimed that “Pennsylvania is cheating and getting caught at massive levels rarely seen before.”

“REPORT fraud to authorities. Law enforcement must act NOW!” Trump wrote.

The former president’s campaign won a lawsuit Wednesday in the Keystone State over claims that voters in Bucks County were turned away while waiting in line for mail-in ballots. A judge extended the deadline for voting by mail in Bucks County until the end of the business day on Friday. The statewide deadline was set for Tuesday at 5 p.m

“Needless to say, Pennsylvania is not cheating,” a senior Harris campaign official said on the call, adding that “a handful of people were reportedly turned away from early voting lines in Bucks County” and “the county responded by suing in court in to vote for additional days, not just hours, of early voting.”

A senior Harris campaign official said the system is “working exactly as it should,” citing three counties in the Keystone State that identified suspicious registrations and refused to process them while also coordinating with law enforcement.

“All of this is only a deception in the mind of someone who wants to claim he has been deceived, and it is yet another example of Donald Trump trying to sow doubt in our elections and institutions when he fears he cannot win,” he said. the official. said.

Elon Musk’s voter contest

Meanwhile, a Pennsylvania judge filed a lawsuit Thursday against billionaire Elon Musk and his America PAC put on hold while the fate of a federal court that will hear the case hangs in the air.

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner sued Musk and his super PAC earlier this week over allegations that the Trump ally’s $1 million-a-day election contest constitutes an illegal lottery.

Musk’s lawyers argued Wednesday that state court was not the appropriate venue for the lawsuit and filed to move the case to federal court.

Although the world’s richest man was ordered to appear at Thursday’s hearing, he failed to show up.

Many voters feel fear and frustration about the campaign

About seven in 10 Americans feel frustrated or concerned about the 2024 presidential campaign, while just over a third feel excited, according to a survey. AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll released Thursday.

Nearly 80% of Democrats are concerned about the race, compared with nearly two-thirds of Republicans and about half of independents, according to the poll.

Americans’ feelings about the 2024 presidential campaign are similar to those of 2020, when three in 10 felt excited, nearly seven in 10 were frustrated and nearly two-thirds said they felt anxious, according to the same pollsters.

Sourced from Trump’s Harris campaigns

Harris will hold a campaign event in the Appleton, Wisconsin, area on Friday and a rally and concert in Milwaukee later in the day.

The veep’s running mate, Democratic Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, will campaign in Nevada and Arizona this weekend.

Ohio GOP Sen. J.D. Vance, Trump’s running mate, will hold rallies in Portage, Michigan and Selma, North Carolina on Friday.

Trump will hold rallies in Warren, Michigan and Milwaukee, Wisconsin on Friday.

The Harris campaign said Thursday it will host its election night campaign at Howard University in Washington, D.C. — the vice president’s alma mater.

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